Old Forest

Now is a great time to go on a hike in the Old Forest. Not that there's ever a bad time...



I love watching the seasons change and there's always something new to discover. Jiro was impressed by the giant acorns.



Satchel called this gumball wrapped in a leaf his Molotov Cocktail.



And, as usual, we were interested to see all of the different mushrooms. I wonder what this one is called...



Take a break from the city and get an Old Forest fix!

Gobble Gobble

I decided to kick off Thanksgiving with the Turkey Trot 4 Mile & Relay like last year. Only instead of Ashley & I doing the relay, we did the entire 4 miles...and our husbands did the relay. Warren and Dan don't run, but they ran for us. It was fun being out there together and was a great way to start a day of feasting. (The 2009 Turkey Trot was the first race Ashley & I ever ran.)


Once we showered and packed up our things, we headed to my mom's house where the kids spent the night and began decorating for the big day.

Jiro drew the turkey both alive and dead.



Satchel decided it should be alive when we served it.



Warren headed into the kitchen to finish up his dishes and my mom, the kids, and I headed to the movies. We let the monkeys go see Tangled with their older cousin while we went to see Morning Glory. It was the first time the monkeys got to see a movie "by themselves" and they were ecstatic. My mom and I were also quite happy to see a movie of our own choosing.

Back at home, most of the food was done and the rest of the family assembled to eat.

Warren cut the turkey, and despite making a rule that there was to be "no picking," you can clearly see Satchel doing just that.



Everything was delicious, of course. In addition to turkey we had cornbread dressing, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, roasted veggies, baked cabbage, fresh cranberry sauce, canned cranberry sauce, rolls, apple pie, and a Mexican chocolate torte.

Once we were all stuffed and happy, we sat around to chat, read the newspaper ads, and play Blokus. Everyone loved Blokus. It proved to be entertaining to everyone aged 4-70+, which is quite a feat.



All in all, it was a wonderful, relaxing day.

Giggle Giggle Quack

On Tuesday, Warren and I took the monkeys to see Giggle Giggle Quack, the latest installment of the Orpheum's family series. The monkeys LOVE going to the Orpheum.


We were invited to have dinner in the Pat Halloran Lounge, which was super fun. There was pizza, juice boxes, and ice cream sandwiches--the monkeys' dream meal.


Outside they had a petting zoo. (The play is about a farm if you didn't guess from the title.) There were little donkeys ...er...miniature ponies?


Bunny rabbits...


Chickens...


and Guinea pigs. (One of them pooped on me!)


They also had a llama and a little pig, but the boys didn't want a picture with them. Inside were the famous Peabody ducks. Satchel was SO excited to see the ducks! After Aida, I think he thought that they were going to be in the play, but they were just hanging out.


I thought they might march down the aisle, but it was probably too crowded and crazy.


The place was packed with families, which was awesome. I think the fact that most children were out of school on Wednesday helped increase the attendance.

The play was cute, not the cutest we've seen, but cute enough. With so many kids in the theater it got a little rowdy at times with some extra screeching and crying, but I kind of loved it.

Thank you Orpheum for having special nights just for us! If you want to check out a future show, check out the schedule here.

Z Brunch

One of the most frequently asked questions I get is, "Are you still playing roller derby?" (Other variations include, "Do you still rollerblade?")

I refereed for the past couple of years, but no, I don't really play anymore. I do, however, keep up with my Z-Girls. A lot of us became refs, and a handful of us still meet for drinks at the Cove on Tuesday nights. I often skate on the greenline with my old coach, and friend, Natalie. And last Sunday, almost all of us met up for brunch at Bardog.


I have to say that you'd have to look pretty hard to find a finer bunch of women. We had a great time catching up and the funniest part is that I don't think that we even mentioned roller derby once!

Okay, the funniest part may have been when the manager offered us all a free shot and we declined! (Okay all but two of us.) Then he offered free dessert and we had to really think hard before deciding to split just a few.

Our old motto was "Fast and hard!" Now it's more like "Slow and steady," but I'll take it.

Ravioli

As I mentioned, I left the New Face for an Old Broad event midday Saturday because it was Ravioli Day at the Alley-Browns. This marked our fifth year making ravioli with them. (Each year they make 50 dozen to get them through Thanksgiving with the entire Zanone clan.) It's one of my favorite activities because it involves 1) food, 2) lots of my friends, 3) the monkeys, 4) alcohol, and 5) relaxing.

Before I started hanging out with asians, and later marrying one, I was all about eating pizza and pasta. (My diet is mostly rice based now.) However, I don't think I ever had real ravioli until I was first invited over in 2006 to help make the 50 dozen.

Here's how it works. Kristy and Andria spend most of the day making the filling and the gravy (also known as sauce) so that everything is ready to go when we arrive. Richard makes the dough, rolls it out, and then doles it out to whoever is ready.



Then Elizabeth, who has already confirmed that you have washed your hands, watches closely as you get the filling and place just the right amount of it neatly on the dough.



She really watches closely when the fillers are under the age of 10. Here she suggested that Jiro cut the dough in half so it would be easier to fold.



The folding is VERY important.



Once it's folded, you have to smoosh it down around the filling so that there are no bubbles. Then you fork the middle to let extra air out.



Finally, you cut them out and make the edges look pretty (and secure) with a fork.



Kristy comes through every so often and loads the finished ones on pans so that she can freeze them. When we hit our quota, we start making our reward for the day--dinner.



It's SO good, and so hard not to stuff yourself.

I think my favorite part this year was when we insisted that the guys dismantle the pasta roller so it would stop squeaking. Once they took it apart, it still squeaked, so Stephanie had to go home and get hers. Meanwhile, we all stood around in the kitchen dipping baguette pieces in the huge vat of gravy.



A few other observations...

1. Satchel stayed as far away from the ravioli making as possible. He only has eyes for Joshua.

2. I forgot to bring a cute apron again. (Probably because I do not own one.)

3. Warren didn't attend due to sickness. He has only made it to ravioli day one time in the 5 years that we have been invited.

4. GK is taking after her Aunt Elizabeth.



5. Chip's pictures get better every year! (See his full set here.)

Thanks as always to the Alley-Browns for including us!

Gratuitous

The amazing Amie Vanderford shared her pics from the bike parade with me, and I loved them all so much I decided to post them here. (The ones involving me or the family, that is.)

I love this one of Anthony earnestly helping me figure out what's what.


He got it all sorted out, and we lined everyone up, and off we went.








It really was fun.

New Face for an Old Broad

I've had a crush on Broad Avenue ever since we bought our house 3.5 years ago. Seems like after this weekend, everyone has a crush on her! Over 13,000 people came out to see the facelift!

We walked over on Friday night and ran around the skatepark, climbed on the climbing wall, and had a bite to eat at Broadway Pizza. It was great to see so many people out and about. Best of all, all of the buildings that are usually closed up were full of life. Pop up shops abounded and nearly every door was open. In fact there were so many people crowding the sidewalks that the freshly painted bike lanes became pedestrian overflow.



Speaking of the newly painted bike lanes, we filled them up with a hundred or so people on Saturday morning for our Biker Babe Parade. I was thrilled to see so many familiar faces and lots and lots of new ones too. The little bitties really got into the spirit of things.



The big kids had fun too.



Satchel and Jiro even seemed pretty excited about it. (Although this picture isn't exactly showing that.)



Warren wore his new hat.



It really was a lot of fun. I had a handful of awesome volunteers who made the bike parade run as smoothly as possible, even with several last minute changes. I hope we get a chance to do it again--bigger and better--next year!

After the parade, the kids visited the Jr. Archaeology station and Weaver & Associates and then we had to hit the climbing wall again, which was conveniently located next to Happiness where we procured cupcakes and chocolate keys to happiness. Then the monkeys reminded me that I promised them a crepe from the Crepe Maker.

We saw so many people we knew and were having so much fun that we could have easily stayed all day. There was so much that we didn't even get to see or do! We had plans to attend the annual ravioli making at the Alleys, which is one of our favorite activities, so we forced ourselves to leave.

I went back by on Sunday to talk to Pat, one of the organizers, and I have to say that seeing the street without all of the people was really exciting too. I got to take in the bike lanes and newly striped parking spots in all of their glory. I was sad to see all of the pop up shops dismantling, but I have hope that after this weekend, we might see some new, permanent businesses opening up.

All pictures by Chip Chockley, except the top one, which is from the ilovememphisblog.

Bikes on Broad

Last night I went shopping for all of the things my Facebook friends told me I should get to decorate bikes with for Saturday's Broad Avenue Biker Babe Parade. I totally scored at the Dollar Tree, but narrowly escaped getting involved in a dispute between a customer and a cashier. It quickly escalated into the customer attempting to run over the cashier in the parking lot! (The cashier was on the phone with the police at the time, had already given the license plate number, and was in sight of several witnesses.) After the customer took off, the cashier came back in unharmed, and I continued my shopping elsewhere.

The Biker Babe parade will be exciting, but on a completely different level! The entire street (Broad Avenue) is getting a facelift today and tomorrow. I can hardly wait. (I wrote about it in my column yesterday, Dream of building a better block is at hand.) There's been a ton of press and buzz about the event, so I won't hammer it over your head anymore.

I just want to invite you and your kids to join the bike parade tomorrow! We'll have the decoration station set up at 10am, and the parade starts at 11am near Hollywood. Steve Cohen will lead us down to Collins which should only take 15-20 minutes, tops. Trillium Womancare will have free hot chocolate and clean restrooms for everyone to use at the end.

Come early and stay late--there's lots going on. Team Oster is very interested in the pop-up Skate Park and the Happiness Store. Even if you miss the parade, there will be tons to do and see (and eat)! If you see us, be sure and say hi!

Taekwondo Tourney

On Saturday, my mom accompanied the monkeys to their very first Taekwondo tournament. It just happened to fall on a day that I had to work and Warren had to take his praxis exams.

Satchel was the one who really wanted to go. Jiro waffled back and forth up until the day before. My mom reported that when it came time to come, he didn't put up a fight and happily went along.

Jiro's age group was first. They did the pattern of their choice and then drills.


I thought that they were just participating to get patches for their uniforms. It never occurred to me that they'd actually be judged. (Duh, tournament = competition!)


At about 10:30 I got a phone call and the little voice on the other end said, "Mommy, I won!" Jiro took the first place trophy for his drills! How awesome is that?


Satchel's group went next...


At noon, my mom called me again. I answered, "Please tell me that Satchel won something." He did--third place for his Do San pattern. "He's embarrassed," my mom said. (He wouldn't even let her take his picture!)

Since I was at work, I had to leave it up to her to solve the conflict. I was reminded of our last fishing trip when Jiro caught the hugest fish ever and Satchel just caught an ordinary one.

Satchel is so naturally good at everything, and Jiro is always in his shadow, so I was finding it hard to feel too sorry for him. Thankfully by the time I picked them up, Satchel's first words to me were, "Look at the awesome trophy Jiro won! And check out my medal." He was genuinely happy for him, and not at all embarrassed anymore.

My mom said she told Satchel that brothers don't compete, they support each other. After pointing out that they could technically compete someday of they had the same belts, he agreed with her and changed his attitude.

Thanks, Mom!

Elmwood

I've always heard how awesome Elmwood Cemetery is, but I didn't believe it until I saw Liz's post over at Go With Family. Then I was just looking for an excuse to go. My friend, Blair, was in town over the weekend with her family and visiting Elmwood was on her list of things to do. (She has kin buried there.) We wanted to get our kids together, and Elmwood seemed like as good a place as any, so we met up on Sunday afternoon.



Our neighbor, Jason, was playing at our house and decided to come with us. Warren, who needed to study, couldn't resist the trip. To keep the boys in check he told them that if they acted crazy or climbed on tombstones they risked waking the spirits and having them follow us home.

(Thanks, Warren! You can tell he's not in charge of bedtime!)

The kids were immediately attracted to this swing, which Blair said was once attached to the tree behind it.



I was immediately attracted to John Overton's massive grave. Yes, John Overton of Overton park fame. I tried to kiss him but my lips wouldn't reach.



We were lucky enough to have not one, but two archaeologists among us, so all of our questions were answered and we were supplied with a steady stream of information.



To keep the kids occupied I told them I'd give them a dollar for every tombstone they found with either their birthday, their name, or a person their age. With a little help, Jiro found his birthday.



He even found Waldo!



Satchel found a 7 and a half year old. Sorry, no dollar!



I'm sure no one will be surprised to hear that neither of them found their names. However we were all surprised to find almost ten tombstones with an Otto, which is the name of Blair's son.



Blair's brother, Walker, pictured here with his wife, bailey, had no trouble finding his name either.



Warren offered everyone $100 bucks to spend the night, but there were no takers.



When the kids tired of tombstones, they climbed trees.



The adults discussed what they'd like on their tombstones. I definitely want something poetic (unless I'm cremated).



And I definitely hope Warren gets more than this.



We really could have stayed all day exploring, climbing, and talking.



But we eventually pulled ourselves away.



I can definitely see a return trip in our future. Elmwood is a great place to play and to learn without even knowing you are learning. Take the kids!